No Man's Land
No Man's Land No Man's Land is a period in Gotham City when, after suffering the results of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake and two separate plague outbreaks, the U.S government declared Gotham not worth rebuilding and estranges the city from the rest of the country; destroying all bridges and arteries and forbiding people from entering or exiting the city. With the national guard forming a barrackade around city limits, the Justice League of America were forbidden by law from entering the city. The situation was left to Batman and his associates to find a way to rebuild the city as the streets fell into ganglands and tribal territory. Money became worthless; people instead would barter anything from batteries to services to protection for daily necessities. Graffiti tags were used to mark various territories between gangs and warlords. It wasn't until Lex Luthor, intent on rebuilding and owning the city much like he did Metropolis, entered the city and forced public opinion against the US government's decision to estrange the city. *Timothy Drake boards a Euro-Atlantic flight to Gotham City. *Morgan Tice is arrested and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary. *6:48 pm, bats begin swarming from the caves beneath Bristol. *Azrael (Jean Paul Valley) and Nomoz deliver Bane to a small airfield north of the field. *Doctor Jolene Relazzo; a seismologist hired by Wayne Enterprises, discovers that an earthquake is about to hit Gotham but is unable to contact her employer. *Stephanie Brown and Dean visit Westerberg Mall. *7:00 pm Catwoman (Selina Kyle) infiltrates the Buddingdale's building to steal a pair of night vision WayneTech binoculars. *7:01 pm Detective Bock and Captain Sarah Essen await at the airfield to receive Bane. *Harvey Bullock and Anarky (Lonnie Machin) both catch site of Billy Wildman, wanted for murder, at the Gotham City Midtown Mall and attempt to catch him. Cataclysm Night 1 *The 7.6 "Cataclysm" earthquake, amplified by bedrock shale beneath the city, hits Gotham City at 7:03 pm with an epicenter 10 miles north of the city. The quake lasts for 15 seconds. *Bane escapes police custody. *Wayne Manor collapses as the Batcave splits open. Alfred Pennyworth and Batman (Bruce Wayne) fall into the crevice. *Davenport Towers collapses on top of Gotham Electric over the Midtown district. *Underneath Midtown, Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) attempts to help citizens out of a subway she was riding but is instead shot by a hoodlum who thinks she's after him. *Detective Renee Montoya is trapped in Midtown and stops opportunistic looters. *Blackgate Penitentiary is destroyed. Prisoners run riot. *7:04 pm four of Gotham's tallest towers fall, killing 749 people instantly and injuring 53 more. *80 ft high tidal waves hit Blackgate Penitentiary. *7:05 pm ruptured gas mains begin exploding. *Azreal (Jean Paul Valley) pursues Bane into Gotham City. *7:06 pm fires begin raging out of control. *7:07 pm the Gotham City Police Department Headquarters is hit, the Bat-signal falls through the roof and pins Commissioner James Gordon. *Anarky and Harvey Bullock temporarily form a truce to help survivors. *Trapped within the Buddingdale's building and fighting claustrophobia, Catwoman (Selina Kyle) attempts to save a little girl but she dies. *Surviving the earthquake inside the quake-proof Clock Tower, Barbara Gordon leaves and rallies the GCPD and emergency services. *Stephanie Brown stays at Westerberg Mall to help the injured while Dean abandons her. *7:12 pm Azrael (Jean Paul Valley) pursues Bane into the Gotham City Union Bank. *All flights to Gotham International Airport are redirected to Willeford field in Bludhaven. *Learning of the earthquake via television, Richard Grayson enters Gotham City and saves a mother and son from a closing fissure before continuing into the city. *Harvey Bullock returns to the GCPD and finds James Gordon. *7:48 pm Azrael (Jean Paul Valley) defeats and captures Bane due to a minor aftershock knocking Bane unsteady. *Freeing himself and Alfred from the wreckage of the batcave, Batman (Bruce Wayne) dives into the underground river in an attempt to find a way to escape. *8:32 pm, the first major aftershock hits. *The Hoodlum that shot Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) is trapped under fallen debris. Unable to lift the debris due to her injuries, Helena leaves him to die as she turns to help the remaining passengers reach above ground. *10:03 pm Batman (Bruce Wayne) surfaces in Gotham Harbor. *A fault line ridge rises in the bay, connecting Blackgate with Gotham. Cluemaster (Arthur Brown), Titus Czonka, Dragoncat (Phillip Parsons), Ernie Chubb, Garfield Lynns, Monsoon, Ratcatcher (Otis Flannegan) escape via the ridge and head to Westerberg Mall. *Timothy Drake lands in Bludhaven. *Catwoman (Selina Kyle) escapes the Buddingdale's building to discover the rest of the city destroyed. *Surviving the destruction of the Batcave, Harold Allnut digs a tunnel using a digging machine; freeing himself and Alfred Pennyworth. *Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) enters Westerberg Mall and aids Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) in fighting looters before Cluemaster (Arthur Brown), Titus Czonka, Dragoncat (Phillip Parsons), Ernie Chubb, Garfield Lynns, Monsoon, and Ratcatcher (Otis Flannegan) arrive. The pair manage to fight capture all but Cluemaster (Arthur Brown), whom Stephanie Brown lets escape. *11:53 pm an aftershock destroys the land bridge connecting Blackgate with Gotham. *12:01 am Batman secures Blackgate Penitentiary. 1761 of Blackgate's 2103 populace survive the incident. *Catwoman (Selina Kyle) leads five survivors out of the Buddingdale's building into the morning. *The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) kidnaps Doctor Jolene Relazzo. *Robin (Timothy Drake) rescues a kid from the wreckage but fails to rescue a man trapped further within the wreckage. *Nightwing (Richard Grayson) and Robin (Timothy Drake) meet with Barbara Gordon at the GCPD headquarters. *Batman forms a partnership with Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot) to use his men to aid in digging out wreckage around downtown. *Bruce Wayne contracts hitmen into rescue groups, contracting them into rescuing trapped people throughout the city. *Batman (Bruce Wayne) dons the guise of "Detective Hawke" and helps James Gordon evacuate the Davenport Towers before it collapses. *Ra's al Ghul observes the destruction of Gotham City over the news and summarises that Gotham has finally fallen. *The Penguin walks through Gotham; saving only those whom he thinks might be useful for "favours" in the future. *Two-Face's men attempt to turn him in but are themselves trapped and Two-Face is freed when an aftershock shifts the wreckage. *Leslie Thompkins rescues an orphaned boy who had survived the destruction of his home. *Nightwing (Richard Grayson) and Robin (Timothy Drake) dig through the remains of Wayne Manor. *The Davenport Towers falls. *As Timothy Drake visits his home to check on his father, Nightwing (Richard Grayson) enters the remains of the Batcave and rescues Alfred and Harold. *The "Quakemaster" announces that he is responsible for the quake. Sending a tape to WGTM reporter Daryl Broadbent threatens to unleash another one unless he is paid $100,000,000. Night 2 *As night falls, Batman (Bruce Wayne) investigates the apartment of Jolene Relazzo and confirms her kidnapping. *Having survived the earthquake in the Old Wayne Tower, Lucius Fox organizes homeless shelters to be set up at various WayneCorp buildings. *Batman attempts to capture "Quakemaster" by following the fake ransom pay off but only manages to catch two goons. *Tracking the location where the ransom tape was filmed to the GCTV news studio, Detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya encounter Batman at the location, who hands the two goons he caught over to them. *Returning to the remains of the Batcave, Batman meets with Robin, Nightwing, Alfred and Harold and deduces the Quakemaster did not cause the earthquake but was simply taking credit for it as a ransom opportunity. *Nightwing (Richard Grayson) and Batman (Bruce Wayne) observe as mass graves are set alight to prevent the spread of disease. *While digging people out of collapsed rubble, Nightwing (Richard Grayson) and Batman (Bruce Wayne) encounter Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), who had been fighting looters across the city since the previous night. *Barbara and Bock, Renee and Harvey, and Robin and Alfred all come to the same conclusion that Scarface was the Quakemaster. *Quakemaster sends a group of thugs to hold Mayor Grange hostage in her offices at City Hall. Road to No Man's Land *Two-Face, through a series of good flips, assists people alongside Renee Montoya. *The Justice Legion Alpha arrives from the 853rd century to bring members of the JLA to celebrate the return of Superman in their century. Batman of the 853rd century stands in for Batman, who was abducted into going with the rest of the JLA. *Azrael attempts to contact a US Senator who would be key to providing federal funding for Gotham's rebuilding, however, the Senator is killed by a rockstar/terrorist known as Nicholas Scratch. *Bruce Wayne lobbies the government to not cut Gotham off. He fails. *The National guard evacuates citizens out of the city. *Catwoman leaves Gotham for Cannes. *The United States Federal Government declares Gotham a No Man's Land. No Man's Land January *Cassandra Cain enters Gotham City. *"Black Monday" occurs as the US army blows all arteries in and out of Gotham. **Oracle begins her chronicle on life in NML **Nightwing and Robin escape Gotham **Arkham Asylum is left unsecured, former prisoners are free to live in the city. *Huntress attempts to stop looters but ultimately fails. *Catwoman travels to Paris and steals the Bouclier D'Arc shield from the Louvre. Fencing it in New York City she decides to run the city as mayor as a new challenge. *Bruce Wayne attempts to gather the rich and vapid in an attempt to gather money against the NML act. He fails. *Ganglands arise with the LoBoys, the Triad gangs (Jade Leopards and Ghost Dragons), the Street Demonz, the Jets, and the Xhosa. *Huntress begins carving her territory around her apartment block. *James Gordon reorganizes the remaining GCPD officers into a vigilante street force known as the Blue Boys. *Vampires attempt to take over The Cauldron, however, Hitman dispatches them. *The Penguin establishes a black market Iceberg Lounge in Gotham's Diamond District. *In an effort to become more intimmidating, Huntress adopts the Batman symbol. *Poison Ivy establishes her territory in Robinson Park and begins taking in orphans to protect along with the garden. *Talia al Ghul convinces Bruce Wayne to keep fighting. *The Ark Project Refugee Center in the Faith Sector is established. *Two-Face establishes a court in the City Hall District with himself as judge and Tally Man as executioner. *Leslie Thompkins establishes the MASH Sector around Crime Alley *Alfred Pennyworth enters Gotham *The Faith Sector is set up as a religious haven protected by Huntress in Upper East Side. February *Bruce Wayne contacts Lucius Fox in New York. *Clayface invades Robinson Park and enslaves Poison Ivy *Harleen Quinzel obtains a jester costume and tracks down the Joker, joining his gang. *Batgirl begins establishing the Batman Sector. *The Drakes move to Keystone City. *Joker and Harley Quinn establish their territory in Amusement Mile. *Remaining electrical service fails. *Bruce Wayne enters the Gotham City. *Huntress adjusts her Batgirl mask to cover her face fully after getting sprayed in the face multiple times. March *All dogs and other animals in No Man's Land have been eaten. *Batman begins opening his city-wide network of Satellite Batcaves. *A week-long blizzard blankets Gotham in snow. People start burning books from the Gotham City Public Library to keep warm. *Batman identifies Huntress as the new Batgirl and observes and helps in her encounter with Ferak. *Batgirl contains Ferak in Robinson Park. *Batman reunites with Alfred and notifies Oracle of his return. *James Gordon and the Blue Boys incite a five day-long war between the LoBoys and the Street Demonz. The Blue Boys than invade and take both territories. (noted as Days 98 - 102 of NML) *Stephanie Brown gives birth. *The Gotham River freezes over, however, the mines laid by the USMF prevent any from crossing. *Batman dismantles the Scarface territory, adopting it into the Batman Sector and allying with the new Batgirl. *In pursuit of Nicholas Scratch, Azreal regains his powers. *Batman establishes the Blackgate Penitentiary as his personal penitentiary. Leaving it under the control of Lock-Up and KGB-Beast. April *Batman and Huntress defend the Faith Sector from the Scarecrow's mechanicians. *Azreal enters No Man's Land in pursuit of Nicholas Scratch and fights Calibax. Batman sanctions Azrael as the Agent of the Bat and assigns him to retake northern Gotham and fight the Joker. *Batman forces an information-exchange pact on the Penguin, leaving his territory alone as long he didn't attack other territories. *Gordon sends Renee Montoya to strike an alliance with Two-Face (noted as day 190 of NML) *Two-Face annihilates the Xhosa gang in exchange for a future favour. The Xhosa territory is merged into the Blue Boys. *Rumours begin that Superman is flying in medical supplies to the MASH Sector and the U.N. is lodging formal protests against the U.S. for its treatment of Gotham. *Black Mask begins destroying various Wayne buildings throughout Gotham with his "True Face" cult. *The Black Mask stages an attack on the Clock Tower and is defeated by Batgirl. His territory is merged into the Batman Sector. *Superman visits Gotham and ousts the Mad Hatter while at the same time repairing the auxiliary power station, leaving it to Mr Freeze to maintain. *Young Justice thwarts a group of Kobra submarines from infiltrating Gotham, however, after coming to grief with Ferak, Batman tells them to leave the city. *Francine Langstrom attempts to find her lost son in Gotham. *Azrael meets Oracle face-to-face for the first time and thwarts the Death Dancer. May *Day 129 of NML **Gordon employs Two-Face to assist in taking over Penguin's territory. **Forming a joint attack with the Penguin to take Batman's territory. **Batgirl attempts to defend the Batman Sector but is outnumbered. **Two-Face double-crosses the Penguin and hands half of the Penguin's territory to the Blue Boys while at the same time conquering the Batman Sector. **Gordon ends his alliance with Two-Face. Two-Face captures Renee Montoya and her family in retelliation. *David Cain is hired by Two-Face to assassinate James Gordon, he is foiled by Cassandra Cain. *Batman reassigns the role of Batgirl from Huntress to Cassandra Cain and calls in the rest of the Bat Family (Nightwing and Robin) to take back Gotham. June *Batman and Robin invade Robinson Park and frees Poison Ivy from her enslavement under Clayface. Batman allows her to remain there as long as she cares for the orphans and distributes food to the rest of the city. **Billy Pettit breaks from Gordon and takes many of the Blue Boys with him, partnering with Huntress and forms the Strong Men. *Superman visits Huntress, revealing to her what the JLA have been doing in protecting Gotham from outside invaders. *While dropping off their injured to be treated in the MASH Sector, Pettit's "Strong Men" group and Huntress run afowl of Zsasz, who was a patient in the sector, Killer Croc, and Batman and Batgirl. Zsasz is captured and sent to Blackgate after Nightwing regains control of the penitentiary. **Nightwing takes Blackgate Penitentiary away from Lock-Up and KGBeast but is severally injured in the process. July *Mister Freeze attempts to further the destruction of Gotham's infrastructure through providing power only to those who give him kindling for the furnaces, inciting the citizens to pillage everything in the city for electricity. Batman destroys the power plant and disrupts Freeze's power base. *After being rejected by the Joker sent away while trapped in a rocket, Harley Quinn lands in Robinson Park where she turns to Poison Ivy for support. While befriending her, Ivy makes Harley immune to poisons and boosts her strength and reflexes. *Harley Quinn entices Batman into capturing the Joker as part of her revenge against him, however, the pair end up back together again and escape. **Robin captures the Ratcatcher **Azrael and Batgirl defeat Nicholas Scratch August *Batman employs Catwoman to recover Gotham's historical records from Manhattan. *Batman helps Lynx free a group of immigrants from slavers using them to provide Chinatown with electricity. *The Joker and Harley Quinn commence their rampage through Gotham. Establishing new territory, the Joker holds a political election campaign against Billy Pettit to set his territory apart from the others. *St. Dumas enters Gotham on the Day of Judgment to confront Azrael. *Catwoman steals the discs from a security group called Hardcases, Inc. and attempts to sell a copy of the disks on auction only for the copy to be stolen by Mercy Graves. **In response to Catwoman's meddling, Lex Luthor moves forward his plans to acquire Gotham City. September *Bane infiltrates Gotham City. *Thanks to Bane's manipulations, Two-Face is framed for killing members of various gangs and his territory is overrun. Batman abets Bane to demolish the Hall of Records as a gambit to flush out Bane's employer. *Detective Bock and Robin discover an Underground Railroad in their pursuit of medical supplies. *Batman goes undercover as Matches Malone to investigate a rumoured tunnel out of Gotham. *Superman returns to visit Gotham once again, this time using his knowledge of farming to help the crops in the community garden to grow by providing rain. October *Two-Face captures James Gordon and holds him against a hearing for his treason against the pact made between himself and Two-Face. **Mercy Graves meets with the Penguin, Batman and Robin confront Penguin about her identity but are rediverted upon hearing that Two-Face's gang had invaded Tricorner. **As Two-Face, Renee and Gordon face trial, Batman and his partners free Tricorner from Two-Face's gang. **As a sign of good will, Batman attempts to reveal his identity to James Gordon, Gordon refuses to look. **Batman and James Gordon renew their partnership. *Killer Croc makes a grab for territory against the Penguin and the Blue Boys which ultimately fails. *Catwoman returns to Gotham City with the information requested by Batman. Stone, the leader of Hardcases Inc, follows in pursuit but is stopped by Azrael. **Lucius Fox has progress in Washington in revoking the NML executive order. *Pettit attempts to access the Gotham Court House to execute Two-Face but is stopped by Batman and the Blue Boys. *Azrael and Batgirl are ordered to evacuate the northern territories to prevent the Joker from killing victims to get Batman's attention. November *Pettit attempts to capture Barbara Gordon, the perceived information source for the Blue Boys, however, Oracle and Nightwing are assisted in their escape by Huntress. *Batgirl and Azrael confront the real Joker while evacuating the northern Bat Sector. *Lex Luthor illegally breaks the U.S barrackade and lands in Grant Park, establishing Camp Lex (Day 312). **Robin is sent to spy on Pettit's group. **Batman visits Lex Luthor and warns him that Gotham was not his to buy. *The Joker attacks the workers at Camp Lex, he is thwarted by Bane. *Batman warns Bane of his intention to thwart Luthor. Bane leaves Gotham. *Johnathan Drake pulls strings with his political contacts to get his son air-lifted out of Gotham, which causes further stir for the Government to rethink its position on closing off Gotham. *An Executive Order is signed to bring an end to No Man's Land. *The Penguin attempts to blackmail Luthor into letting him run the underground in Luthor's "New Gotham" by employing Catwoman to steal equipment from Luthor's camp. **Catwoman ends up double-crossing both Luthor and Penguin, destroying his Iceberg Lounge and continues to pester Luthor's workforce to irritate Mercy. *The National Guard returns to Gotham (Day 333, November 29th) December *LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises unite to rebuild Gotham. *The Joker attacks the Strong Men's compound. Petit is killed and the Huntress barely survives. *The United States government reverses the No Man's Land order and allows Gotham to rejoin the United States. Gordon and his surviving police officers are promoted. *The Joker kidnaps all of the babies in the city, enticing a city-wide hunt that results in Azrael receiving burn injuries and the death of Sarah Essen Gordon. *Batman foils Luthor's covert plan to take the property rights of Gotham through falsified deeds, having employed Bane to destroy the original deeds in the destruction of the Hall of Records. He orders Luthor to leave. *Joker escapes custody, crashing the helicopter as he is on route to prison and escapes to Qurac. *No Man's Land officially ends on New Year's Day Aftermath *The city's populace is divided between "OG"s (Original Gothamites); citizens who stayed during NML, and "DeeZee"s (Deserters); citizens who left the city or were otherwise not there during NML. "OG"s consider the "DeeZee"s as invaders who have no right to live in Gotham as they hadn't suffered through NML as they had, while the "DeeZee"s consider the "OG"s as scum who were too dumb to leave or otherwise look after themselves. The terms later extended to birthright; where "OG"s were born and raised in Gotham while "DeeZee"s were born and raised elsewhere. *The city's new mayor is Daniel Dickerson. *As soon as the NML edict was lifted, organized crime returned to Gotham. Burnley Town Massive controlled Burnley, the Lucky Hand Triad controlled Chinatown, the Colombians ran the gangs in Coventry, the Russians ran Midtown and Pasquale "Junior" Galante ran the Gotham Mafia on the East Side. *Some months later, Joker reveals himself as having coordinated an international incident in Qurac and threatened to bomb New York. Captured by Oracle and Black Canary, the heroines save New York as the Joker is classified as a Super Predator and incarcerated at The Slab. *Poison Ivy and her 16 adopted orphans are removed from Robinson Park one year after Gotham is reinstated. File:CataclysmPoster1.jpg File:CataclysmPoster2.jpg File:NMLmap4.jpg|Month 3 File:NMLmap1.jpg|Month 4 File:NMLmap2.jpg|Month 5 File:NMLmap3.jpg|Month 11 File:Demonzmark.jpg|Demonz Tag File:GCPDmark.jpg|Blue Boys Tag File:Jokermark.jpg|Jokerz Tag File:Lowboysmark.jpg|Lo Boys Tag File:Maskersmark.jpg|Maskers Tag File:Scarfacemark.jpg|Scarface Tag File:PenguinTag.jpg|Penguin Tag File:BatTag.jpg|Bat Tag File:HuntressTag.jpg|Huntress Tag File:ArkProject4.jpg|Faith Sector Tag File:Cataclysm2.jpg CataclysmEarthquake10.png CatwomanGothamDestruction.png File:NML1.jpg File:NML2.jpg File:NML3.jpg File:NML5.jpg File:NML6.jpg File:NML7.jpg File:NML8.jpg File:NML9.jpg File:NML10.jpg File:NML13.JPG File:NML14.JPG File:1000px-Gotham_City_004.jpg File:NMLBatHuntressOracle.jpg File:NMLGLOrian.jpg File:NMLNoFlyZone.jpg File:NMLWhale.jpg File:NMLBooklist.jpg File:NML17.jpg File:NML18.jpg File:NML20.jpg File:NML21.jpg File:HelenaBatgirl.jpg File:NML25.jpg File:NML26.jpg File:NML27.jpg File:NML29.jpg Trivia *The tectonic fault runs under Spillkin Hill in Bristol, across the harbor to Chalfont; right through the heart of Gotham. *Their meeting at the GCPD headquarters following the quake is the first time Timothy Drake met Oracle in person. *During the weeks before the NML edict, James Gordon attempted to find work in another city, however, he was regarded as inept due to his use and reliance on the Batman myth to enforce law. *Oracle's agents used the Gotham Emergency Communication Network, a network of three dozen emergency phone terminals located throughout the city with two-year batteries, of which fifteen still worked, to communicate directly with Oracle. *To communicate with each other, Batgirl and Batman used coloured cloth tied to certain structures. Inside the cloths would be notes and messages one would leave for the other. *By the first three months of No Man's Land, Oracle had eight field agents in NML, dubbed "Oracle's Eyes", each outfitted with two-way radios, maps of the city and emergency rations. These informants and messengers included; Rex, Rajiv, Cassandra Cain, Squish, Malcolm, and Vanessa. Information Databank Category:Information